


Natural Businessman

by VanillaMostly



Category: The Wire
Genre: Gen, Minor Character(s), Post-Canon, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-20
Updated: 2016-06-20
Packaged: 2018-07-16 03:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7250737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanillaMostly/pseuds/VanillaMostly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slim Charles is intrigued by a kid on the street.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Natural Businessman

 

 

The kid was all bloody and beaten bad but didn’t look like he would back down anytime soon. He was angry, the kind of angry that stayed behind the eyes, an angry that reminded Slim Charles somewhat of Bodie. The kind of angry that got Bodie killed. Slim ambled over.

The hoppers explained in a mess of expletives punctuated by a couple more kicks at the boy on the ground. Slim heard them say “snitch” more than once, a word that lit up defiance in every inch of the kid, but he said nothing. Just glared up from the concrete and spat a mouthful of blood, Bodie-style. 

Slim waved his hand and the hoppers scattered in sullen and grudging fashion. The kid got to his feet slowly, eyeing Slim as suspicious as if Slim were five-oh.

Slim nodded at the ruins of his makeshift booth and sign. “You sellin’?”

“The fuck you care.”

The boy squatted down to gather up his goods—toy cars, glasses, hats, lighters, bit of this and that. Slim reached down to pick up one of the items, an old rusty clock. Ancient but working.

“Where this come from?”

“Didn’t steal it,” spat the boy.

“Warn’t sayin’ you did,” said Slim, calm. “Just wonderin’ who done the fix-up, that all. Fine work.”

He handed the clock back to the boy, who stood there still glowering his hostile front, though now with a crack of uncertainty.

“I did,” the boy muttered, snatching the clock back. 

Slim let out a low whistle. The boy ignored Slim, continuing to pack his things. Slim bent down to pick up those that had rolled away during the tussle. The boy noticed.

“I don’t need yo’ help. Fuck off, a’ight?”

Not many people said “fuck off” to Slim Charles nowadays. Slim, however, stepped back. “Easy…” 

Shaking his head, he slipped his hand into his pocket and withdrew a wad of bills, thumbed through them with his long fingers. 

“Keep the change,” he said, folding the bills into the kid’s book-bag.

The kid stared. Now he was confused for real, so much he forgot his earlier menace. “Why—”

“You doin’ fair business, no botherin’ nobody. Warn’t right of ‘em to do you up.”

The kid shrugged. “All in the game, ain’t it.”

Slim Charles watched him shoulder his book-bag and turn to go, limping slightly, jaw set as stubborn as ever. Something in him, something with this boy.

“Got a name, shorty?” Slim called after him.

The kid looked at him, face stretched too taut for a boy his age. But for one moment when his features relaxed, Slim thought he saw a resemblance to somebody other than Bodie, maybe the person this kid resembled truly all along.  

“Randy.”

Slim gave a salutatory nod. “You a natural businessman, Randy.”

The kid might have looked a touch pleased.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Weird "father-son" pair, this one, but the irony!!!!!  
> (Also The Wire dialogue is really hard to pin...


End file.
